WHAT IS GRAFTING
Simply put grafting cacti is when you attach one cactus to another.
WHY GRAFT SAN PEDRO TO ANOTHER CACTUS?
1. to speed up growth tremendously
2. to save a dying plant
3. to get your Cactus out of it's fragile seedling stage quickly
4. to be able to grow plants that normally wouldn't grow in your climate
5. to be able to grow cacti that don't possess their own chlorophyll
6. BECAUSE ITS COOL!
WORDS TO KNOW:
VASCULAR BUNDLE: the vascular bundle is a ring of tubes or "veins" that run through the center of your cacti. The vascular bundle is what transports water and nutrients throughout the plant. This can be seen has a ring when the cacti is sliced horizontally.
SCION: the Scion is the portion of the cacti that you will be attaching to your rootstock
ROOTSTOCK: the rootstock is the plant that the scion gets attached to.
HOW IS GRAFTING DONE?
Well, its done in many fashions but all have the same goal....to fuse two different cacti together! This is done by connecting the cut end of a scion to a cut growing tip of a rootstock making sure to overlap the vascular bundles so that they may fuse together. This will allow the rootstock to supply the scion with what it needs to grow.
This is then allowed time to heal. For detailed tutorials check out the other grafting pages.
A FEW TIPS:
- make your flat cuts in one stroke. This helps prevent air pockets in between the healing junction.
- be clean, use a high percentage rubbing alcohol for sterilization
- use healthy actively growing specimens for both the scion and rootstock
- choose a fast growing rootstock if you want the scion to grow faster.
- a typically slow growing cactus might deform on a fast growing scion
- ounce the cuts are made on the cacti be quick about connecting them. If they dry out your graft probably wont take.
- the smaller the scion the more sensitive it will be to water loss while its fusing and may need to be in a humid environment. With micrografting this is a must.